Joint Statement by Child Rights Activists in Iran and the Juvenile Justice Centre on the Risk of the Execution of Children and Adolescents in Iran
Alarming reports of the imminent execution of Shervin Bagherian, an eighteen-year-old from Isfahan, once again demonstrate that sentencing children and adolescents alleged to have infringed, or recognized as having infringed, the penal law to death, and carrying out those sentences, remain part of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s persistent practice.
These concerns intensified after the Islamic Republic publicly executed two other defendants in the same case at dawn on Tuesday, 28 July, at the time of the morning call to prayer. This has increased fears that the sentences against other defendants in the case, including Shervin Bagherian, may also be carried out. In recent months, the Islamic Republic has executed two 18-year-olds, Amir Norollahi and Amirhossein Hatami, who were arrested during the January 2026 uprising, while others remain on death row.
According to the latest information received by human rights organizations, including the Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI), as of 26 July at least 184 adolescents detained during the January uprising remained in prison. At least 14 of them were facing death sentences. Two have so far been executed, while serious concern remains over the possible execution of 12 others. Precise details regarding the fate, sentence, and legal status of other detainees are unavailable. Child Rights Activists in Iran and the Juvenile Justice Centre support the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign and the hunger strike by prisoners in Ghezel Hesar prison against the death penalty, and once again reaffirm their unequivocal opposition to execution under all circumstances.
Article 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child deliberately avoids referring to children as “offenders”, speaking instead of every child “alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law”. Article 37 of the Convention prohibits capital punishment and life imprisonment without the possibility of release for offences committed by persons below the age of 18. The Islamic Republic itself observes these protections in drug-related cases involving persons under 18, imposing neither the death penalty nor prison sentences exceeding five years. However, in cases classified as so-called hudud (“fixed divine penalties”) and qisas (“retributive justice for personal injury or homicide”) offences, despite its international obligations and despite the recognition of graduated criminal responsibility for adolescents under Article 91 of the Islamic Penal Code, it exploits its political and security power to selectively suspend the application of laws intended to protect children’s rights. It places children and adolescents in line for death by imposing severe punishments under criminal charges carrying the death penalty, such as moharebeh (“waging war against God”) and efsad-e fel-arz (“corruption on earth”).
In other words, the Islamic Republic has extended the death penalty for children under 18 to political and security cases, as well as to hudud and qisas offences. For years, this government has executed children whom it labels, inaccurately and contrary to the language of child justice, as “juvenile offenders”. On 23 July 2026, corresponding to 1 Mordad 1405, Meysam Irandegani, an 18-year-old, was executed for an offence alleged to have been committed when he was 14. More than one hundred other adolescents across Iran are currently awaiting execution.
Child rights activists have repeatedly warned that the use of charges such as moharebeh and efsad-e fel-arz against children and adolescents, together with the expansion of courts that fail to meet even the minimum standards of a fair trial, will place the lives of still more children at risk. In many of these cases, children and adolescents are subjected to torture, pressure from intelligence agencies, and prolonged and unlawful interrogations. Even the minimum standards of domestic criminal justice are disregarded in their cases. They are sometimes forced to identify themselves in blurred, poor-quality CCTV footage and compelled to confess against themselves. In some cases, including cases in Isfahan, their confessions are broadcast on state television. These forced confessions, false reports and fabricated scenarios produced by the security apparatus then become the basis for issuing and carrying out death sentences.
We, Child Rights Activists in Iran and the Juvenile Justice Centre, once again emphasize that the arrest and torture of persons under 18, and the imposition of security-related charges against them, constitute clear violations of children’s rights and are incompatible with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, including Article 37(a), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including Article 6(5), and other international human rights instruments.
We call upon all international institutions, UN special rapporteurs, governments, media organizations and human rights defenders to stand with the families of those sentenced to death and to act before it is too late to prevent these executions. We demand the immediate suspension of all death sentences imposed in cases where the person was under 18 at the time of the alleged offence; an end to the use of charges such as moharebeh and efsad-e fel-arz against children and adolescents; their immediate access to independent lawyers; and the guarantee of proceedings that comply with international fair-trial standards.
Let us ask ourselves: if any one of us were that adolescent, knowing that we could be summoned for execution at any moment, what would we demand from the international community? Yet another expression of concern, or decisive action to end the execution of children once and for all?
Child Rights Activists in Iran
Juvenile Justice Centre
Learn more about the children and adolescents facing the death penalty in Iran, and take action to help stop their executions.
